How-To Geek

Syndicate content
We Explain Technology
Updated: 5 years 3 weeks ago

Steam’s Winter Sale Arrives To Take All Your Money

Thu, 12/20/2018 - 20:23

Steam’s Winter Sale is finally here with thousands of PC games on sale. It’s practically a holiday tradition at this point. The sale lasts two weeks, ending on January 3, 2019.

What is there to even say about Steam’s sales at this point? If you’re a PC gamer, you know how awesome they are. If you’re new to the whole PC gaming scene, you’ll find thousands of games on sale—from big-budget AAA blockbusters to awesome indie games you might not find anywhere else.

The sales should stay the same for the whole two-week period, so you can buy games whenever you like without waiting for a bigger sale. Steam advertises different sales on its front page every day, with some of today’s front-and-center deals being the Assassin’s Creed franchise for up to 67% off and zombie parkour simulator Dying Light for 60% off.

As usual, some of the sales on older games are especially huge. For just $2.99, you can own Valve’s Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode One, Half-Life 2: Episode Two, and Portal. That’s about 75 cents per game.

There’s also an “extremely cozy cottage” you can visit once per day for some free digital items. Steam’s website says these are “of varying usefulness,” and they include normal Steam items you can keep forever and other “knick-knacks.” Any knick-knacks will expire on February 2, 2019.

If you’re buying games from Steam, remember Steam’s awesome refund policy. If you don’t like a game or it doesn’t run on your system, you can get all your money back as long as you’ve played the game for less than two hours. You have to initiate a refund within the first two weeks after purchasing a game, however.

RELATED: How to Get Refunds for Steam Games

Other sites are competing with Steam’s winter sale, too. If you have Amazon Prime, Twitch Prime is giving away a bunch of free games, including Hotline Miami and its sequel. The Humble Store is giving away LEGO Lord of the Rings until December 22. And GOG has its own big sale, if you like your PC games DRM-free.

Categories: IT General, Technology

Windows 10’s Next Update Makes the Start Menu Less Terrible

Thu, 12/20/2018 - 18:57

Windows 10’s default Start menu is a cluttered mess, but it’s about to get better in the Windows 10’s next version. That release is codenamed 19H1, and will be released sometime around April 2019.

Just look at that new Start menu in Insider build 18305! Sure, it’s not perfect—you can still see Candy Crush Saga and other similar mobile games if you squint—but at least they’re buried in a tile folder. The Start menu now has a simple one column layout with much fewer tiles pinned by default and much less junk. You can also uninstall many of these apps completely in the new update.

This is just for new Windows 10 PCs, new user accounts on existing PCs, and fresh installs of Windows 10. Microsoft will leave your current Start menu layout alone “because [they] want everything to be exactly as you left it before you did the update.”

If you’re wondering whether the new layout is really that much more simplified—well yes, yes it is. Here’s the default Start menu layout for a new user back in the April 2018 Update:

Yikes. Bring on the update!

This isn’t the only new feature in the latest insider build, which is packed with cool stuff. We love the new Windows Sandbox feature, which will let you safely run Windows applications without worrying about malware or junk files that will get scattered across your system.

RELATED: How to Use Windows 10’s New Sandbox (to Safely Test Apps)

Read the remaining 5 paragraphs

Categories: IT General, Technology

The Best Christmas Gifts For Retro Gamers

Thu, 12/20/2018 - 18:00

What do you buy an avid retro gamer? So glad you asked! Read on to find out more about the best gifts for the retro gamer in your life.

It’s often tough to know what to buy a loved one so it stands to reason that you focus on one of their key interests. For retro gamers, you can’t really easily hop onto eBay and buy them a bunch of old games. For one thing, it’s pretty expensive but also you might end up buying the wrong titles or for the wrong platform. Instead, buy these retro gaming related items—you won’t wipe out your bank account, and they’ll still appreciate the effort you’ve put into thinking of them.

Here are the best gifts for retro gamers.

Super NES Classic ($80)

Ok, so the Super NES Classic is the most expensive thing we’ve included here, but wow, does it offer value for money. The device offers 21 classic SNES games including Super Mario Kart, Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting, Zelda: A Link To The Past, Super Metroid, and basically everything you loved from your childhood. It also tosses in Star Fox 2 which was never released for the SNES.

It’s fun for all the family but especially for retro game lovers. It comes with two wired controllers and it’s powered by USB, so it’s pretty convenient to set up. Want more options for retro game consoles? Check out our treatment of the topic here.

Buy on Amazon The Nostalgia Nerd’s Retro Tech ($16)

Nostalgia is an understandable driving force behind retro gaming. The Nostalgia Nerd’s Retro Tech is a great book for bringing all those lovely old memories back to the forefront of your mind. It looks back at the arrival of home computers as well as games consoles, with a plethora of screenshots to make you feel nostalgic.

Read the remaining 20 paragraphs

Categories: IT General, Technology

How to Force Outlook to Download Images (If You’re Sure It’s a Good Idea)

Thu, 12/20/2018 - 17:24

If you receive an email that contains linked images, Outlook does not download those images automatically by default. You can change this behavior if you want, but there risks to doing so. Let’s take a look.

To be clear here, we’re not talking about messages that contain images as attachments or about message into which the sender has inserted images (since those work pretty much like attachments). We’re talking about images that contain URL links to images that are hosted online.

When you get a message that contains images, Outlook prevents the download of those images and shows you a message at the top of the mail.

The reason for this is that Outlook has to download these images from an external server, which means that the server (and therefore the sender) will know that your email address is “live” and being monitored.

This isn’t a problem for legitimate senders like friends, or businesses for which you need a live email address (like PayPal, Amazon, and so on), because it’s fine for them to know your email works. Even here at How-To Geek, we include a tracking pixel in our newsletter so we can remove people who never open or look at our messages because we actively try to make sure we don’t spam people.

But for real spammers, it’s a different story. If they know your email address is active, then you’ll become a bigger target for spam and phishing emails. After all, an account that is known to have a human looking at it is much more valuable for a scammer than an address that might never have a human look at it.

However, even worse than spammers knowing your email address is monitored by a human is the possibility that the images contain a virus or malware. It’s a well-known attack vector, and it relies on people downloading the image to their computer.

Read the remaining 26 paragraphs

Categories: IT General, Technology

How to Automate All Your Christmas Lights

Thu, 12/20/2018 - 16:00

It’s that time of year when the fall directions come down, and the festive Christmas decorations go up. If you’ll be hanging a bunch of Christmas lights around your house, here are several different methods for automating them, so that you never have to worry about turning them on and off manually.

RELATED: Smart Light Switches vs. Smart Light Bulbs: Which One Should You Buy?

Keep in mind that you don’t need to have the fanciest smarthome products to make this happen, but you’ll have a bit more flexibility as far as what you can do if you already have a smarthome hub. With that said, let’s get started.

The Cheapest, Simplest Option: Outlet Timers

If you just want your lights to turn on and off at a certain time every day, you can’t go wrong with some basic outlet timers. They’re cheap, and you can buy them pretty much anywhere. This two-pack is just $11 and is great for low-power, two-pronged appliances like Christmas lights and lamps.

They’re the simplest solution for Christmas light automation, as you just set the times you want the lights to turn on and off, plug it in, and you’re off to the races.

For Advanced Automation: Smart Plugs

If you want to do anything more than what an outlet timer provides, you should get a smart plug instead. You can program your lights to turn on and off at specific times, but unlike some outlet timers, you can also choose certain days to control your lights at different times. For example, on the weekends, you may want your Christmas lights on for longer than during the week.

Read the remaining 12 paragraphs

Categories: IT General, Technology

The Best Card And Dice Game Stocking Stuffers

Thu, 12/20/2018 - 15:00

Not every tabletop game has to take up a huge amount of room on your game collection shelf. Some are small enough to fit into your Christmas stocking and that’s exactly what we’re looking at – perfect stocking stuffer gifts for your card and board game adoring loved one.

Given the size constraints, it makes sense that almost all of these are card games, but as any self-respecting tabletop fan knows — you can have a ton of fun with a gripping card game. There’s a little room for a couple of entertaining dice games too. In each case, they won’t break the bank, and they’ll fit snugly into your Christmas stocking more often than not.

Here are the best card and dice games for your Christmas stocking stuffer needs.

Love Letter ($12)

Love Letter sounds quite cute but it’s actually incredibly devious. Players compete to deliver a love letter to the Princess before their rivals. Sounds charming, right? It’s actually full of risky behavior and sneaky deduction. Players must deflect the letters coming from their opponents in a bid to get there faster.

It’s a quick game to play through, only taking about 15 minutes, but you and your loved one will be keen to play more than once. It’s quick to pick up, and incredibly fun too. It’s also the perfect size to slip into a stocking.

Buy on Amazon Zombie Dice ($9)

Always a popular choice for game fans and newbies alike, Zombie Dice is super simple and super portable too. Its 13 custom dice represent zombie victims and you have to throw the dice in a bid to work out whose brains you eat. A shotgun blast ends the turn and passes play over to the opposition.

Read the remaining 18 paragraphs

Categories: IT General, Technology

How to Send High Quality Photos Online

Thu, 12/20/2018 - 15:00

If you want to send high quality original photos to your friends and family, then there’s really only one good way to do it: with a cloud storage provider. Social networks like Facebook and Instagram don’t store the original files; they reduce the quality, so pages load faster. Even good, dedicated photo services like 500px do it.

This isn’t an issue if you’re just posting photos so people can view them on their smartphones or computers, but if you want them to be able to print the images, you need to give them high-quality files.

RELATED: Why Do Photos Look Different When I Print Them?

What Counts as “High-Quality” Files?

The photos your smartphone camera—or any proper camera—can take are far bigger and of higher quality than social media sites can handle. If every image on your Instagram feed were 2 MBs and 12 megapixels, you’d burn through your data cap in no time. The thing is, these, high-resolution, 2 MB files are exactly what you want if you’re going to print them, set them as your desktop background, or do anything except view them in the correct size box on social media.

Here’s a photo of mine I uploaded to Facebook—it was 2.7 MB and 5166×3444 pixels. When I downloaded it from my Timeline, it was 74 KB and 860×640 pixels. You could barely print that on a postage stamp!

In general, when we talk about high-quality files, what we mean are the original photos straight from your phone or camera or, if you’ve made any edits, a saved copy in full resolution. If you shoot RAW, you can send exported full-resolution JPEGs; full-size RAW files can be a bit unwieldy, especially if the other person doesn’t have the apps to deal with them. These are the kind of files from which they’ll be able to print nice prints.

RELATED: How Big of a Photo Can I Print from My Phone or Camera?

Read the remaining 12 paragraphs

Categories: IT General, Technology

How to Use Windows 10’s New Sandbox (to Safely Test Apps)

Thu, 12/20/2018 - 13:40

Microsoft has released an Insider Preview Build that includes the new Windows Sandbox feature. If you’re on the Fast track, you can download and start using it today.

What is Sandbox?

In short, Windows Sandbox is half app, half virtual machine. It lets you quickly spin up a virtual clean OS imaged from your system’s current state so that you can test programs or files in a secure environment that’s isolated from your main system. When you close the sandbox, it destroys that state. Nothing can get from the sandbox to your main installation of Windows, and nothing remains after closing it.

RELATED: Windows 10’s New Sandbox Feature is Everything We’ve Always Wanted

How Do I Get It?

Currently, the only way to use Sandbox is to join the Windows Insider program and put your PC on the fast track for updates. You shouldn’t do this on your main PC. The fast track is potentially unstable and can lead to data loss, crashes, or other nasty surprises. Since Microsoft has trouble releasing stable versions of Windows outside of testing, you should keep the Insider builds to a non-production PC.

Once you have installed Insider build 18305 (or higher), installing and starting Sandbox is a simple process.

Step One: Make Sure Virtualization is Enabled

First, you’ll need to make sure virtualization is enabled in your system’s BIOS. It typically is by default, but there’s an easy way to check. Fire up Task Manager by hitting Ctrl+Shift+Esc and then head to the “Performance” tab. Make sure the “CPU” category is selected on the left and on the right, just make sure it says “Virtualization: Enabled.”

If virtualization is not enabled, you’ll need to enable it in your PC’s BIOS settings before you continue.

Step Two: Turn On Nested Virtualization if You’re Running the Host System in a Virtual Machine (Optional)

Read the remaining 26 paragraphs

Categories: IT General, Technology

Geek Trivia: The Glyphs In What Video Game Are Directly Translatable to English?

Thu, 12/20/2018 - 09:02

The Glyphs In What Video Game Are Directly Translatable to English?
  1. The Legend of Zelda
  2. BioShock
  3. Final Fantasy
  4. LEGO Star Wars

Think you know the answer?

Categories: IT General, Technology

Turn Your Mouse into a Laser Pointer in PowerPoint

Wed, 12/19/2018 - 22:00

Using a laser pointer is a great way to focus the audience on a specific part of your presentation. If you don’t happen to have one on hand at the time of your presentation, then you can use PowerPoint’s neat little setting to turn your mouse into a laser pointer. Here’s how.

Turning Your Mouse into a Laser Pointer

Microsoft came to the rescue with its PowerPoint 2010 release, getting presenters who forgot their laser pointer out of a pinch by providing a feature that converts the mouse into a laser pointer.

Enabling this feature is quite simple. In fact, you can do it during the actual presentation.

Once you’ve started your presentation and you want to change your cursor into a laser, press and hold the “Ctrl” key while clicking and holding the left mouse button.

As you can see in this GIF, we want to draw attention to “How-To Geek” in the question, then show the correct answer. You can also see that the cursor converts back to a pointer when you let go of the left mouse button, so be careful.

Changing the Color of Your Laser

The default laser color is red, which might not work well depending on the color of your slides. To change the color of your laser, switch to the “Slide Show” tab in your presentation and then click the “Set Up Slide Show” button.

Read the remaining 7 paragraphs

Categories: IT General, Technology

The Best Gifts For eSports Fans

Wed, 12/19/2018 - 21:00

So you’ve got an eSports fan on your holiday shopping list, but you’re baffled by the inscrutable phenomenon. (“eSports” is the misnomer for high-profile video game competitions with cash prizes, FYI.) No worries: we’ve got you covered.

eSports fans are pretty similar to fans of conventional sports, just, you know, without the sport part. They root for their favorite teams and players, love to show off their enthusiasm with licensed clothing and gear, and most of all, want to see these video game competitions live. That being the case, it’s not hard to figure out what makes a good gift for a fan.

Jerseys, Hoodies, And Other Merch

Officially-licensed clothing is always a surefire way to show fan enthusiasm, and that’s no less true for the eSports crowd. Most of the official competitions and teams will sell at least something, even if it’s only T-shirts, but jerseys are the premium option for those who’re looking for a gift that will last longer and show off specific teams.

General licensed clothing for the big eSports games—DOTA, League of Legends, Counter-Strike, Rocket League, Overwatch, et cetera—can usually be found at the developer’s store, and usually on larger marketplaces like Amazon and specific stores like GameStop, too. These are items aimed at promotion of the game itself, so they won’t be quite as personal, but they make pretty good gifts if you can’t find anything else. 

For organized competitions like The International or the LoL World Championship, look on the specific site for those tournaments. For gear that promotes individual pro teams or players, check the sites for said players—some games like Overwatch also promote team memorabilia on the publisher’s page.

Licensed PC And Console Accessories

eSports players usually have some high-end gear to play on. What better to give the aspiring pro game player than some of the same stuff? The selection of gaming gear for this purpose is generally limited to individual games instead of teams or players, like Razer’s selection of Overwatch-themed keyboards, mice, and headsets.

Read the remaining 14 paragraphs

Categories: IT General, Technology

Razer Activates The Turret, The First Official Mouse And Keyboard For Xbox One

Wed, 12/19/2018 - 20:25

Some games, like first-person shooters, are just better with the mouse and keyboards you find on PCs. And now that consoles are basically just PCs with better quality control, why are gamers stuck with analog sticks? Why indeed, Razer asks.

As big games like Fortnite push for more and more cross-platform play, Microsoft has seen the light and elected to let at least some of them use PC-style control schemes. You can just plug a regular USB mouse and keyboard into your console, but if that’s not scratching your consumerism itch, Razer is making the first combo officially designed for this functionality. The Turret is a mouse and keyboard set that uses high-speed RF wireless and a slide-out mousepad to make controlling games on the couch as comfy as possible. It’s up for pre-order on the official Microsoft store right now, shipping in early 2019 for an eye-watering $250.

This is actually the second Razer product to carry the Turret name: the original used a laptop-style chiclet keyboard and a somewhat diminutive mouse, and was only compatible with conventional PCs and things like the NVIDIA SHIELD. That Turret left a lot to be desired, but the reboot uses Razer’s full-sized mechanical key switches, a mouse with buttons and ergonomics copied from its most expensive PC models, and of course, fully-programmable RGB lighting.

A neat trick to help with the somewhat awkward form factor: the mouse and mousepad use gentle magnets to keep the former from slipping off the latter. Since it uses a USB dongle, the set is compatible with PCs, too. Razer says the batteries can last for more than 40 hours of use, with lighting disabled.

Keep in mind that not every game will let you play with mouse and keyboard: Xbox developers have to enable it in Microsoft’s system. But the biggest multiplayer titles are on board, including the aforementioned Fortnite, Minecraft, Warframe, DayZ, and War Thunder. Is a competitive advantage worth an accessory as expensive as your Xbox itself? For a dedicated and free-spending subset of gamers, the answer will certainly be “yes.”

Categories: IT General, Technology

How to Import an Excel Document into Google Sheets

Wed, 12/19/2018 - 18:23

Did someone send you an Excel document, but you don’t have Excel? Giving up on Microsoft Office and making the change to Google Drive? No problem; Google Sheets lets you import your Excel files. And while it might not support some of the same features and effects of an Excel document, it works pretty well.

How to Import an Excel Document into Google Sheets

To view an Excel document on Google Sheets, you must first upload the file to your Google Drive. Open Google Drive, click “New,” and then click “File Upload” to get started.

RELATED: How to Create a Drop-Down List in Google Sheets

Navigate to your file(s) and then click “Open.”

Alternatively, you can drag and drop a file from your computer directly into the web browser for an easy upload.

Read the remaining 12 paragraphs

Categories: IT General, Technology

The Best Headphones And Earphones To Gift This Christmas

Wed, 12/19/2018 - 18:00

A great pair of headphones or earphones make a perfect Christmas present for your loved one. We’ve rounded up the best headphones, earbuds, and earphones for every situation.

In the case of headphones, we’ve focused primarily on comfort and noise cancellation features. Generally, headphones are at their best when you use them on your daily commute or simply when relaxing at home and you want to focus on listening to music. Alternatively, earphones and earbuds are perfect for when you’re active, such as when out walking, running or cycling. Bear in mind though that even the best noise cancelling earphones are rarely as effective as a good pair of noise cancellation headphones.

We’ve also thrown in a great pair of bone conduction headphones because these are a great alternative if you want to buy something a little different. Especially if the recipient of the gift has some hearing issues.

We’ve highlighted all our favorites here but throughout the year, we’ve looked at headphones and earphones in-depth. Don’t forget to check out the best truly wireless earbuds, best in-ear noise cancelling earbuds, best over-ear noise cancelling headphones, and best bone conduction headphones, to find out more.

Here’s our picks for the holiday season.

Best Noise Cancellation Headphones: Bose QuietComfort 35 ($349)

When you need some of the best noise cancellation headphones out there, go for the Bose QuietComfort 35. They offer three levels of noise cancellation so you can tweak them accordingly depending on if you’re sitting on a busy train or just want a bit of peace and quiet in a public place. It also has a noise rejecting dual microphone system to ensure that calls are just as smooth as merely listening. There’s Alexa support too, although you’ll be reasonably happy with the easy to use controls, as well as Bose Connect app functionality.

A battery life of 20 hours when noise cancellation is active, along with consistently great audio quality, ensures that these really are the best of the best at this price point. It’s the gift that will keep on giving for many years to come.

Buy on Amazon Best Lightweight Headphones: Plantronics BackBeat 500 ($63)

Read the remaining 27 paragraphs

Categories: IT General, Technology

What is a FireWire Cable, And Do You Really Need It?

Wed, 12/19/2018 - 17:24

FireWire, also known as IEEE 1394, is not a cable you usually find these days. Popularized in the early 90s, it was the competing standard to USB for a long time, not unlike Thunderbolt is today. Offering much faster speeds, even faster than USB 2.0, FireWire a connection you’ll usually find on older external hard drives and digital cameras.

FireWire 800 vs. 400

FireWire has two versions, and unlike USB 2.0 and 3.0, they’re not backward compatible. They don’t even look remotely alike, which can lead to some confusion. The older standard, FireWire 400, is a flatter connector with one rounded side, and the faster 800 version resembles a fat USB connector.

The naming scheme is accurate though, as it represents the actual speed of the cable: 400 Mbps vs. 800 Mbps. For comparison, USB 2.0 is 480 Mbps, and USB 3.0 completely outdates it with 5 Gbps.

Just Get Yourself a Dongle

Unfortunately for FireWire, nowadays you’ll find yourself needing a FireWire-to-2018 adapter as much as you’ll need the actual cable. You can find some adapters on Amazon, just make sure it’s the right FireWire type, as they’re not compatible with each other.

You’ll also want to avoid a USB 2.0 adapter if you’re looking to connect FireWire 800, as it will be much slower. Though, if it’s the only way you can connect it, running at half speed isn’t too bad.

Categories: IT General, Technology

Manage App Notifications Right from Your iPhone’s Notification Center

Wed, 12/19/2018 - 16:00

The way iOS handles notifications has always been less than ideal, but iOS 12 goes some way to improving matters. Part of that is the new ability to change how notifications are handled, right from within the Notification Center.

With the arrival of iOS 12, Apple made it possible for people to receive a notification, decide that they don’t want ever to have to see it again, and then make that happen all without going spelunking into the often confusing world of the Settings app. That’s a great improvement for usability and one that hopefully means developers will think twice before spamming their users with notifications.

Managing notifications from the Notification Center is a great way of making sure you never see that irritating game’s request for your time again. That’s almost worth the upgrade to iOS 12 alone. Once you’ve done that and received one-too-many irritating notifications, instead of dismissing it, swipe left on it.

You’ll see three options, and the one to tap is “Manage.”

Next, you’ll see four options.

  • Delivery Quietly: This option will allow the notifications to arrive, but they will not play any sounds, display banners or badge icons, or appear on the Lock screen.
  • Turn Off: This option does exactly what it sounds like, turning off all notifications for the app in question.
  • Settings: This will take you to the more granular notification options within the Settings app. Here, you can change how notifications are displayed and which sound they make when they arrive.
  • Cancel: This button cancels the dialog and returns you to the Notification Center.

Read the remaining 4 paragraphs

Categories: IT General, Technology

The Best Retro And Mini Console Gifts

Wed, 12/19/2018 - 15:00

“Retro,” “Mini,” and “Classic” consoles are the bee’s knees this holiday season, with notable offerings from Nintendo, Sony, and (sort of) others. But which one is the best?

There’s a pretty clear standout among the current crop of officially-licensed mini-consoles, and it’s no spoiler to say that it’s the Super NES Classic. But there are a few other options you should consider, especially if you (or your gift recipient) are unimpressed with the limited and non-expandable selection of games in these devices. A premium remade “clone” that plays original cartridges, or a device that runs emulators and nigh-unlimited game ROM files, might make a better choice for some gamers.

Before we dive in, be aware of a recent development: Nintendo recently announced they will be discontinuing the NES and SNES Classic after this holiday season. If you want to pick one up (and you don’t want to pay outrageous scalper-level prices for one a few months from now), now is the time to do so.

The Best Retro Console: Nintendo Super NES Classic Edition ($80)

The NES Classic may have started off this craze, but going all the way back to the 80s might cause a bit of gaming jet lag. The older 8-bit games, with their extremely simple graphics, sounds, and two-button control schemes, haven’t aged as well in reality as they might have in your memory.

The SNES Classic is the way to go. Not only are the Super Nintendo games featured in its collection much more palatable than the older NES games, it’s an overall better group. Timeless Nintendo classics like Super Mario World, Super Metroid, Zelda: A Link to the Past, Mario Kart, and Donkey Kong Country are joined by third-party all stars like Mega Man X, Street Fighter II, and Super Castlevania IV. The SNES’s rich RPG legacy is also honored, with Earthbound, Super Mario RPG, Final Fantasy III, and Secret of Mana, but Chrono Trigger is an unfortunate no-show. Star Fox 2, an SNES sequel that was developed but never released, gets a world premiere on this new hardware. Naturally, the SNES Classic plays all of these games over HDMI, and there are some excellent accessories offered for the hardware, too.

Nintendo’s classic offering is getting the nod over the PlayStation Classic. Sony’s entry has some serious technical issues since some games run slowly due to PAL ROMs. While there are some standout titles in the PS Classic like Final Fantasy VII and Metal Gear Solid, it doesn’t have the wall-to-wall greats that Nintendo’s hardware does.

But the most unfortunate fact is that the early 32-bit 3D era has simply aged poorly: the low-resolution, low-framerate, and low-polygon visuals aren’t as clear or as appealing as the 16-bit sprites on the SNES games. It wasn’t until the PS2 era that 3D graphics on consoles really started to shine, while the Super Nintendo was the pinnacle of 2D console gaming. Plus, many of the PS Classic titles are available to play on the PS3 and PS4, which isn’t true with the SNES Classic and Nintendo Switch.

This is the one you probably shouldn’t get.

Read the remaining 15 paragraphs

Categories: IT General, Technology

How to Use Leading Lines for Stronger Photos

Wed, 12/19/2018 - 15:00

As you get better at photography, you need to start making deliberate choices about the composition of your images. The rule of thirds just won’t cut it anymore. One of the simplest and most powerful composition techniques is leading lines. Let’s look at what they are and how to use them.

RELATED: Is the Rule of Thirds Really a Photography Rule?

Why Composition?

Photography is an art form. Sure, there’s not a tremendous amount of art to snapshots of your dog you took with your iPhone, but there still is the potential there for an image to be more than just a disposable depiction of something that happened.

Good images say something. It’s not always some big, deep point or cultural criticism; often it’s “the world is pretty awesome” or “humans can do cool stuff.” Composition is just one of the tools that serve to deliver the message.

Let’s look at a photo of mine.

In this shot, I wanted to say a few things:

  • Humans are small, and nature is big.
  • Humans still do pretty epic things in nature.
  • SPEEEEEEEED!

It’s not exactly a Pulitzer-Prize-winning photo, but I think I managed to get my point across with my composition. Whenever you’re taking a photo, think about what you want people looking at it to feel. Calm? Angry? Excited? Inspired? Happy? Whatever it is, the composition will either make or break the message.

Read the remaining 34 paragraphs

Categories: IT General, Technology

Windows 10’s New Sandbox Feature is Everything We’ve Always Wanted

Wed, 12/19/2018 - 13:40

Whether it’s a program you found on the Internet or something that came in your email, running executable files has always been risky. Testing software in clean systems requires virtual machine (VM) software and a separate Windows license to run inside the VM. Microsoft is about to solve that problem with Windows Sandbox.

VMs: Great for Safe Testing, But Hard to Use

We’ve all received an email that appears to be from a friend or a family member and has an attachment. Maybe we were even expecting it, but somehow it looks not quite right. Or perhaps you’ve found a great looking app on the Internet, but it’s from a developer you’ve never heard of.

What do you do? Download and run it and just take the risk? With things like ransomware running rampant, it’s almost impossible to be too cautious.

In software development, sometimes the thing a developer needs the most is a clean system—a quick and easy to pull up OS that has no other installed programs, files, scripts, or other baggage. Anything extra could skew testing results.

The best solution to both situations is to spin up a Virtual Machine. This gives you a clean, isolated OS. If that attachment turns out to be malware, then the only thing it affects is the virtual machine. Restore it to an earlier snapshot, and you’re good to go. If you’re a developer, you can do your testing as if you’d just set up a brand new machine.

RELATED: Beginner Geek: How to Create and Use Virtual Machines

There are some problems with VM software, though.

First, it can be expensive. Even if you use a free alternative like VirtualBox, you still need a valid Windows license to run on the virtualized OS. And sure, you can get away with not activating Windows 10, but that limits what you can test.

Read the remaining 22 paragraphs

Categories: IT General, Technology

Geek Trivia: The Probability of Death Is Measured In What Units?

Wed, 12/19/2018 - 09:02

The Probability of Death Is Measured In What Units?
  1. Termini
  2. Micromorts
  3. Deathrolls
  4. Mortalities

Think you know the answer?

Categories: IT General, Technology

eXTReMe Tracker